Related Summaries

The Department of Energy's loan-guarantee program, which expired Friday, will help maintain as many as 60,000 jobs and generate a clean-energy supply for more than 2.5 million homes, according to Secretary Steven Chu. "It's not enough for our country to invent clean-energy technologies, we have to make them and use them, too. Invented in America, made in America and sold around the world. That's how we'll create good jobs and lead in the 21st century," he said.

The Energy Department would need an extra $13 billion from Congress to award loan guarantees for the construction of three nuclear plants, Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a Senate subcommittee this week. The department granted $8.3 billion in loan guarantees to help Southern add two reactors to an existing facility in Georgia, and the remaining $12 billion would only be enough to fund one more project.

The Energy Department is studying options to provide $2 billion in loan guarantees to USEC's American Centrifuge project in Ohio and Areva's enrichment venture in Idaho, Secretary Steven Chu said. "We are working on mechanisms so that each can apply for the original size of their loan guarantee independently," he added.

Though the process for clearing federal loan guarantees for new nuclear plants has become "complicated," the Energy Department still expects to release its first loan agreements soon, Secretary Steven Chu said. Congress allocated $18.5 billion for guarantees five years ago in an effort to revive development of the energy source. The amount should be sufficient to finance at least two nuclear projects, Chu said.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that his office will begin issuing loan guarantees for renewable-energy projects by May after streamlining the application process. The $787 billion stimulus bill sets aside $6 billion to support $60 billion in loan-guarantee authority for renewables in addition to $38.5 billion previously approved. Of the funds authorized in 2005, plans call for $18.5 billion to fund guarantees for nuclear plants and $2 billion for nuclear fuel processing; $10 billion for renewables and efficiency; and $8 billion for clean coal.